A Covid-19 contact Tracer tells her story

 * Emer O'Connor is working as a contact tracer in Denbighshire. 

A team of staff at Denbighshire County Council are helping the national efforts to tackle covid-19 by working as contact tracers, as part of the Welsh Test, Trace and Protect (TTP) programme.

The team are provided with details of any confirmed or suspected cases locally and then have the role of tracing people who may have come into contact with the individual.

One of the contact tracing team members is Emer O'Connor.  

Emer’s normally works as a planning officer and her role involves evaluating plans for new developments, visiting sites, liaising with consultees and assessing compliance with the Denbighshire Local Development Plan.

Emer’s said: "I volunteered to work on the TTP team at the end of May, as the council were looking to put together a group of people to work on contact tracing for Covid 19. My manager was keen to support the multi-service TTP effort and I felt it would be an interesting and worthy piece of work to help out with. 

“On a daily basis the council are notified of the individuals within the area who have tested positive for Covid 19 by Public Health Wales. 

"The contact tracers’ job is to phone these individuals, going through their Covid 19 symptoms or testing timeline to ascertain when they may have been infectious. We then trace their activities and the people who they have been in close contact with during the infectious period. 

"We record their contacts and note any significant trends in locations or activities. We advise the individuals of their self-isolation time-scale and provide them with general good hygiene advice and ensure they understand and are equipped for self-isolation, signposting to other help and services as required. Once we have uploaded their data onto the TTP system it is passed on to the contact advisors.

“I have been redeployed to TTP full time for a few months so luckily I have not had to juggle two workloads, as that would have been quite a challenge.  

"For me the pressure comes from knowing that contact tracing has to be done promptly and well after testing. We have to try to get people talk fairly openly and reveal as much relevant information at possible. 

"Recording and finding their contacts in order to ask them to self-isolate is the key to limit the spread of the virus in the community by breaking the link in transmission.

“The team have been great to work with, we are lucky that the group has come from a range of backgrounds  across the council so the skill and information base is varied. Communications within the team and our supporters, the experts in in Public Protection has also been fantastic, this has helped tremendously.

“TTP has been in operation for a number of weeks now and the reaction has been resoundingly positive. People seem to understand the importance of TTP in trying to get the virus under control regardless of whether they are quite poorly or completely asymptomatic.

“I have nothing but admiration for the real life-savers working on the frontline through the pandemic. There are so many other key workers, including council staff, who have had to adapt and deal with so many challenges since March. 

"I am pleased to be able to help out in a very small way, knowing TTP is an effective way to reduce the spread of the virus, enabling us all to take another step towards normality. 

"Everyone is probably aware by now if they test positive for Covid 19 they will have to self-isolate for seven days, so my message is if you test positive please prepare for your TTP call.

"Try and think of where you have been and who you have seen, even write it down as we will ask for names and phone numbers. As Wales opens up in the coming weeks you might have quite a few contacts so if you test positive help us out by thinking ahead to our call."

Councillor Mark Young, Cabinet Lead Member for Planning, Public Protection and Safer Communities, said: “Emer is part of a team of contact tracers who are doing a great job working on the Test, Trace and Protect programme in Denbighshire.  

"This is a vital piece of work in the fight against covid-19 in our communities and the effort in Denbighshire is reflected nationally in counties across Wales.

“We all have a role to play in reducing the spread of the virus, protecting people and keeping Wales safe and this is where we need the public’s support. If anyone is contacted by the contact tracing team, they need to follow the advice given and provide the information that’s requested. 

"We’ve had a great response from the general public so far and this ensures we can do all we can to trace those people that have been in contact with suspected or confirmed cases.

“We are so proud of the work of the contact tracing teams, as well as teams right across the council for playing their part in the efforts to tackle Covid-19. Many are working in roles that are very different from their day jobs.  

"The whole team in Denbighshire has pulled together and everyone is providing great support to the local and regional efforts, whatever their role."